Speed governor



G. E. HOWARD SPEED ebvmmon Jan. 3, 1950 Filed Oct. 21, 1944 nvmvm EM BY W m ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 3, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFILC 2,493,401

SPEED GOVERNOR George E. Howard, Butler, Pa. n n n October 21, 1944, Serial No. 559,792

'7 Claims.

Specifically this in e tion or an impr ment in that ype Of. ne 'Qnl roller or governor r automobile engines, of thev internal com on ty e. wherein. au oma ic-spe d control is p vided bya valve whi ch, is automatically moved toward closed po it on in the uel intake line, upon increase of engine speed above a predetern d rate, he valve beine. opened by a sprin to permit incr ased low of iuel. when the su io in the intake manifol reduc d. thr ugh a deea in ng e s eech a herein shown, the. inv o s ap lied to a governor valve f he unbalanced butterfly ty e..-

In governor ap aratus or his ty e, wi h. h fo pedal oi h throttle va ve depressed to a point at which the valve is about 35 open, for example (which usually allows slifll'cient fuel fiow to maintain normal driving speeds under average conditions) when the vehicle speed, exceeds any desired governed rate such as l0 miles per hour, the governor valve will be drawn toward closed position by the increase in engine speed and suction.

In descending a hill, the vehicle speed may become so greatas to draw he overnor valve in the direction of closing movement. If'the setting of the governor valve is such that it can be thus moved to a point about 13 to 15 from a completely closed position, it is frequently so firmly held in its closed or nearly closed position, through the great increase of suction that occurs as the Valve approaches its fully closed position, that it is in efi'ect locked in; such Position until the engine has been slowed down for so far below governed speed as to result in serious loss of time and annoyance to the driver.

On the other hand, if the governor valve is so set that it will not close farther than about 19", so as to avoid this movement ofthe-valve to about its completely closed position and its becoming locked or frozen there, the benefit of compression braking in descending; steep hills is lost, and the operator will have to constantly return the pedal to idling position to prevent racing, or to use the foot lorake on all of the steeper downgrades.

Automobile designers have, therefore, had to choose between losing the benefit of compression loraking on down-grades or being subjected to the annoyance of too great speeding up of the vehicle in descending-steep hills.

My invention has for one of its objects the provision of a manually-operated control device for a governor valve, Where'bythe governor valve can be so operated that the lbenefit of compres- 2 sion brakin can e. secured and wh r by t governor valvetcan instantly be moved from clo ed or nea ly closed position. as soon as he opera o senses that the vehicle has reached the low point of its governed. speed.

Anot er object of my invention is to pr vid governor apparatus of such construction that the .f ot pedal or other man ally-cont lled devic for the throttle valve can conveniently be held at a definite position for normal driving power. with the governor valve effective to automatically maintain the vehicle at a governed, rate of travel, but wherein an extra lourst of speed can be secur d in m g ncies, hr ugh further op ration of the pedal to render the governor valve ineffective to restrict, the speed to the governed rate.

In the accompanying. drawing, Figure 1 shows one formof the governing apparatusand manual control at idling position; Fig. 2 shows the manually-actuated position of the apparatus in norm l driving position, and. Fi 3 shows a modification of the apparatus. of Fig,. 1,.

In Figs. 1 and 2, I show a fuel intake line 5 leading from a carburetor to an engine intake manifold, which are not shown Av throttle valve 6 of usual form is journaled in, the line 5 on a shaft that carriesa crank arm 1. The crank arm is connected through a link 8 With a 'bell crank lever 9 that is normally biased in a counterclockwise direction loy a spring l0, whereby the valve 6, is. yieldaloly urged toward, closed position in the usual manner. A pedal II has connection through a link or rod I 2 with the bell crank 9 so that when the pedal is depressed, the Valve 6. will be moved toward its open position, against the pull of the spring 10., A spring 13, is engaged by the foot pedal when the pedal is depressed to a pointat which the valve 6 is opened to about 35, which allows suilicient fuel flow for ordinary driving conditions at, governed speed. For additional power, further depression of the pedal will compressv the spring l3 to move the valve to its position, for maximum power, which may be at about 72 of opening movement. This arrangemen enables the. driver to rea ly hold he p l a n. a curately positi ne p in as d erm e by its en a ement. with the s rin 1:3 and with a reater de ree of relaxation than if the sprin t. were not present, the governor to be hereinafter desc ibed au ma cally maintainin s d s d To more complete y rel e th d iver of r vi g. s rain, a la ch may be; rovided for releasably holding the pedal lightly against the spring l3, such as the latch shown in my P en 239596 which latch can eadily be tripped by the foot of the operator when he desires increased speed or wishes the pedal to be returned to idling position.

The shaft of the throttle valve also is provided with a crank arm l5 which through a link I6 is connected to a crank arm I! On a shaft 3 that carries a governor valve IS, the governor valve being in unbalanced relation with respect t its shaft so that the flow of fuel mixture under the suction existing in the manifold will tend to move the valve toward closed position, against the tension of a spring 20. As is usual in devices of this type, the spring 26 will exert such yieldable resistance to the suction force that the valve will not be rocked toward closed position until the engine speed and suction attain a predetermined rate.

A pin or stud 22 on the arm I! is moved in a slot 23 of the link It. Thus with the pedal H in idling position, as in Fig. 1, increase of engine speed above the governed point, as when descending a hill, will create sufiicient suctional force to rock the valve 19 in a counterclockwise direction, so as to reduce the fuel supply. At this time, the pin 22 will move upwardly in the slot 23. If the speed and suctional force are so great as to completely close the valve I9 and it appears that there is going to be an unnecessary lowering of speed, the operator will depress the pedal II to shift the link 16 downwardly and thereby cause the free end of the slot 23 to engage the pin 22 and rock the valve [9 clockwise. Movement of the pedal II to a suflicient degree to accomplish this object will require some compression of the spring I3.

If at this time the vehicle has reached the bottom of a hill, the driver can return the pedal to its normal driving position as in Fig. 2. The stud 22 is then free to move back and forth in the slot 23 under the influence of the spring 20 and the suctional force, in the usual manner, to maintain the vehicle at a desired speed. Should an extra burst of speed be required, the operator will further depress the pedal l l, against the resistance of the spring l3, to open the throttle valve 6 further and to rock the governor valve 19 in a clockwise direction from its position shown in Fig. 2, and to hold it against preventing this increased speed. When the pressure on the pedal is eased to allow it to return to its position in Fig. 2, the governor valve will thereupon become operative.

The length of the slot 23 may be such that the governor valve can move about 35 relative to the link 16, if conditions are such that a 35-degree opening, of this valve will permit sufficient flow of fuel for normal or average driving conditions. In other instances, a 30 or 40 normal valve movement may be required. At any rate, the crank arm I5 is of such greater length than the arm ll, that upon a full depression stroke of the pedal II, when the governor valve is closed, the lost motion at the slot will be taken up, and the governor valve will be moved to its maximum open position when the throttle valve is fully opened. This may be about 72 opening, for both valves. The fact that the throttle valve can be moved to a '72-degree opening while the crank arm I! is moving through a lesser distance than 72 is because of the long throw of the arm 15 relative to the arm H. For example, the arm l5 may be three inches in length and the arm 11 two inches.

Referring now to Fig. 3, I show a somewhat different arrangement, wherein a throttle valve 28 and a governor valve 21 are both rocked clockwise when moved in opening directions, a somewhat different arrangement of lost motion connection between the valve being required here than in the case of Fig. 1. In this instance, a crank arm 28 that is connected with the valve 26 is in turn connected through a link 29 with a crank arm 30 that is joined to the valve 21. In this case as in Fig. 1, depression of the pedal II will rock the valve 26 toward open position and the pin-and-slot arrangement at 32 and 33 will permit actuation of the governor valve 21 independently of the suctional force and spring tension exerted thereon, in order to manually shift it from a position of compression braking, and also to render it ineffective when an extra burst of speed is required, as explained in detail in the discussion of Figs. 1 and 2.

I claim as my invention:

1. Governor apparatus for controlling the rate of fuel supply through the intake passageway of an internal combustion engine, comprising a manually-operated throttle valve in said passageway, a suction-responsive governor valve in the passageway, biased toward open position by a spring and moved toward closed position by suctional forces in said passageway, a manuallyoperated device for operating the throttle valve and a connection between said device and the governor valve, arranged to positively move the governor valve in an opening direction when the throttle valve is moved open beyond a predetermined position, the said connection being ineffective to prevent closing movement of the governor valve when the throttle is at its said predetermined position.

2. Governor apparatus for controlling the rate of fuel supply through the intake passageway of an internal combustion engine, comprising a manually-operated throttle valve in said passageway, a suction-responsive governor valve in the passageway, biased toward open position by a spring and moved toward closed position by suctional forces in said passageway, a manuallyoperated device for operating the throttle valve, and a connection between said device and the governor valve, arranged to positively move the governor valve from a closed position toward an open position, when the throttle valve is moved in an opening direction from a predetermined position, the said connection being ineffective to prevent control movements of the governor valve when the throttle is at its said predetermined position or at a more nearly closed position.

3. Governor apparatus for controlling the rate of fuel supply through the intake passageway of an internal combustion engine, that is provided with a manually-operated throttle valve, comprising a governor valve of the unbalanced butterfly type in the passageway and provided with a spring for biasing it toward open position, and a lost-motion link connection between the valves, so arranged that the governor valve will have freedom of movement under the influence of its spring and the suctional forces in the passageway, when the throttle valve is at a predetermined open position, the lost motion being taken up and the governor valve positively moved in an opening direction when the throttle is moved farther open than said predetermined running position.

4. Governor apparatus for controlling the rate of fuel supply through the intake passageway of an internal combustion engine, a throttle valve in the passageway normally biased toward closed.

position, a pedal having link connection with the valve, for moving it in an opening direction, a spring stop positioned to yieldably resist valveopening movement of the pedal, beginning at a predetermined point of opening movement of the pedal and valve, a suction-responsive governor valve in said passageway arranged to be urged toward closed position in the passageway, by suctional forces in the passageway, and a lostmotion connection between the throttle valve and the governor valve, arranged to freely allow governed movements of governor valve when the throttle valve is not open beyond its predetermined open position, the said lost motion being taken up to cause opening movement of the governor valve when the pedal is depressed a substantial distance against the spring resistance.

5. Governor apparatus for controlling the rate of fuel supply through the intake passageway of an internal combustion engine, comprising a manually-operated throttle valve in said passageway, a suction-operated governor valve in the passageway, biased toward open position by a spring and moved toward closed position by suctional forces in said passageway, a manually-operated device for operating the throttle valve, a crank movable with the throttle valve, a crank movable with the governor valve and being of substantially shorter effective length than the other crank, and a lost-motion connection between the cranks, so arranged that the governor valve may have a limited range of movement relative to the throttle valve and the governor valve will be positively opened in opposition to suctional forces, when the throttle valve opened beyond a predetermined open position.

6. Governor apparatus for controlling the rate of fuel supply through the intake passageway of an internal combustion engine, comprising a manually-operated throttle valve in said passageway, a suction-operated governor valve in said passageway biased toward open position by a spring and moved toward closed position by suctional forces in said passageway, a manually-operated device for operating the throttle valve, a crank movable with the throttle valve, a crank movable with the governor valve and being of substantially shorter effective length than the other crank, a pedal for moving the throttle valve in its opening direction, a spring positioned to be engaged by the pedal at a predetermined normal open position of the throttle valve and to yieldably resist further valve-opening movement, and a lost-motion connection between the cranks, so arranged that the governor valve may have a limited range of movement relative to the throttle valve and the governor valve will be positively opened in opposition to suctional forces, when the throttle valve is opened beyond its predetermined normal open position.

7. Governor apparatus for controlling the rate of fuel supply through the intake passageway of an internal combustion engine, comprising a manually-operated throttle valve in said passageway, a suction responsive governor valve in said passageway biased toward open position and moved toward closed position by suctional forces in said passageway, a manually-operated device for operating the throttle valve, a yieldable stop engageable by the said device when the device has opened the throttle valve to a predetermined point, and means actuated by the manually-operated device, after it has opened the throttle valve beyond said point, in opposition to the stop, for effecting movement of the governor valve in opposition to said suctional forces.

GEORGE E. HOWARD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are file of this patent:

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